Ice cream mogul talks responsibility

Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, spoke at the IU Auditorium on Wednesday about everything from meeting lifelong friend and business partner Ben Cohen in seventh-grade gym class to battling Pillsbury for a distributor.

Greenfield spoke fondly of Cohen.

“We met on the track because we were the two fattest, slowest guys in the class,” Greenfield said, laughing.

The duo kept in touch throughout college, he said. When it became apparent that neither was reaching his life goals, they decided to start a business together.

“We both love food, so we decided on ice cream,” he said.

The duo opened their first Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. in May 1978 in Burlington, Vt. He said they knew they wanted a college town, and they thought they wanted somewhere warm. But too many established ice cream parlors were in place, so they ended up in Vermont. The winters, which were frequented with many days in subzero temperatures, were difficult.

Through creative marketing strategies, they ended up with a major distributor. The distributor threatened to drop them because Häagen-Dazs-owned Pillsbury felt threatened. They felt Häagen-Dazs was wrong in the way it was trapping the distributor into dropping Ben and Jerry’s.

“I thought, OK, we’ll sue Pillsbury. That’ll be fun,” Greenfield said.

The battle began when Häagen-Dazs threatened to pull its product from its distributor if the distributor continued to carry Ben & Jerry’s. This launched a campaign with the slogan “What’s the doughboy afraid of?” to battle against Pillsbury.

Greenfield and Cohen realized they were turning into businessmen and almost threw in the towel.

“Business is essentially single-minded. It focuses on profit,” Greenfield said. “If the problems are how we measure our success, why don’t we just change how we measure it?”

Greenfield said they wanted to set their focus to giving more than just ice cream to the community.

“Ben & Jerry’s realized there is a spiritual aspect to business. The more you give, the more you receive,” Greenfield said.

Ben & Jerry’s set out to give back, including starting the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation. In addition, 14 of its storefronts are run by social groups that provide job training to at-risk youth. They began a social report as well as a financial report to encourage their social and community outreach.

Their social outreach continues to set them apart.

“If you give, you will receive. If you help, you will be helped. Just because it is written in the Bible rather than a business textbook doesn’t make it any less viable.”